Field
The disclosure relates to a method, apparatus and system for Bluetooth-based general service discovery. Specifically, the disclosure relates to a method, system and apparatus for extending Bluetooth low energy technology to conserve energy in multi-mode wireless devices.
Description of Related Art
Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology provides connectivity between Bluetooth (BT) mobile devices and a variety of BT systems, including, cars, exercise devices, computers, tablets and the like. The BLE technology supports relatively low power consumption of the mobile device. For example, a BT mobile device may be a small sensor, a watch, or a Smartphone having a battery with limited power supply and the BLE technology may enable the BT mobile device to communicate with the variety of systems using a relatively low power consumption.
In all wireless devices an initial discovery process is used to identify networks and other devices capable of wireless communication. For example, a Wi-Fi network device may regularly transmit beacon signals which can be picked up and identified by other Wi-Fi devices enabling them to discover and join the Wi-Fi network.
Similarly, BLE devices continually transmit and scan for BLE advertising message in order to establish connectivity. For example, a first BT device (the BLE central device) and a second BT device (BLE peripheral device) may discover each other and establish a connection to enable data exchange. Compared to the conventional communication modes, BLE provides considerably reduced power consumption and lower cost while searching and discovering corresponding BLE devices.